


The One Where He Leaves

by TheRoseDuelist



Series: The Apprentice Reversed [3]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Gender-Neutral Apprentice (The Arcana), Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21878338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRoseDuelist/pseuds/TheRoseDuelist
Summary: You wake up to find your world falling apart.
Relationships: Apprentice/Asra (The Arcana), Asra (The Arcana)/Reader
Series: The Apprentice Reversed [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567798
Comments: 3
Kudos: 105





	The One Where He Leaves

The battle was over. The Devil was dead. You and your friends had won.

It didn’t feel like that the morning after. In fact, it felt like quite the opposite. Like a sucker-punch to your gut. Then someone stabbed you in the heart.

The hangover headache was what greeted you first thing as the morning sun rays cascaded over your face and prompted you awake. A groan from deep in your throat escaped your lips and you rolled onto your side, away from the edge, and smothered your face with the pillow.

The aching in your head persisted, a pounding drum reverberating against your temples, setting your nerves afire. You needed water. A dulling potion to temper the pain. But you didn’t want to get out of bed.

Perhaps, there was another way to get what you needed.

Smiling mischievously, you reached out, hand slipping across the cotton sheets to the other side of the bed. You stretched, still blindly feeling with your fingers, but your fingertips didn’t brush against anything else. The side of the bed was empty. Cold even.

That’s when you opened your eyes.

You know you hadn’t dreamed up last night. The two of you had kept one another up for hours, even after the victory celebration at the palace. The kisses, the caresses, the intertwining of your bodies; it had been everything you dreamed of. Everything you desired. And it was seared into your memory. You could still feel his hands on your hips and lips pressed against your neck. Feel the fingertips trailing down your sides and hear the seductive whispers in your ears.

Everything inside you vibrated, shuddering at the memories. You knew that it happened. You knew that the two of you, once finally satiated, had fallen asleep side by side.

And yet, here you were, alone in bed.

Pulling the pillow off your head, you blinked and shifted, sitting up and taking in the scene. As you suspected, there was no occupant on the other side of the bed. Only the slight imprint of a body remained.

Your throat felt dry and your pulse raced. You didn’t like that. You didn’t like what that could mean.

You hopped out of bed, wincing at the headache hammering in your skull, and rushed through the loft. You didn’t care if you were naked, you just had to find him.

“Asra? Asra? Where are you?”

You checked the washroom. You checked the closet. You poked your head out onto the balcony that overlooked the busy street. But he was nowhere to be found. 

Throwing on your robe, you rushed downstairs into the shop. It was dark. The candles were out. The oil lamps still extinguished from the night before. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed.

“Asra.” You pleaded.

Still no response. You raced into the back, flinging the lavender curtains aside. It was still. No one there.

Your stomach dropped and your chest tightened. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be.

You closed your eyes and reached out with your magic. You were still recovering from the battle the previous day, but you knew you could at the very least feel if he was around. You sent tendrils of your magic through the shop, outside and down the street, stretching to the avenues blocks away.

Nothing. His aura was gone. No trace of his magic remained.

He was gone.

Opening your eyes, they fell to the wooden table in the corner. A white envelope lay, propped up by the opening. Your heart banged against your ribs as you snatched it and opened it.

The envelope fell aside unnoticed as your eyes urgently took in the text scrawled on a single piece of parchment.

With every word you read, a piece of your heart broke.

_My dearest Y/N,_

_I know I said I wouldn’t leave again, but I must. My parents informed me of some information and I won’t rest until I follow-up and discover if it’s real. I wish I could take you, but I know you need rest. And I fear I may find myself with some less-than company. I will be back though at the end of the month and I will reach out in our dreams. I promise to be safe as I know you worry. I miss you already, my love._

_With all my love,_

_Asra_

Your fingers tightened around the letter, creasing its edges. You trembled. Your lip quivered. He had promised to never leave you alone for one of his expeditions again. He had promised that the two of you would always travel together. He had promised to tell you the full truth and never keep you in the dark.

And he’d signed it, “with all my love”. 

This wasn’t love. This was cruelty.

Hot anger blazed in your gut and you crumpled the letter into a ball. How dare he. How dare he claim that you were everything to him and yet he left you behind without so much as a goodbye. He didn’t even have the decency to say goodbye! Everything was all about him and his needs. He pretended what he was doing was for the good of others, but no, he was just satisfying his own curiosity. His own need to travel. And he thought you would wait for him, like some puppy dog, pining until his owner came home to shower him with attention.

How very wrong Asra Alnazar was. 

You threw the letter into the corner and stormed out of the back room. Your body clenched its muscles and you stomped up the stairs. Tears clouded your vision as you ripped open the closet and pulled out all of the clothes you had. As you stuffed them into your bag, you cried, hiccuping and gasping, but you didn’t stop your task. You would not be deterred.

If he wanted to continue his wanderlust ways without thought to your feelings, he was free to do so. But you wouldn’t be there waiting for him, worrying after him, pining for him. You wanted a partner that would treat you like an equal.

It appeared that Asra wasn’t interested in that even though he had said so. As you’d always been told: actions speak louder than words.

Slipping on a set of clothes, you grabbed your things and left the shop. You didn’t know where you were going, but it really didn’t matter. You just had to get away as fast as possible. Leave everything to do with Asra as part of your life behind. Because you were tired of him leaving. You were tired of how awful it made you feel, worried for him, heartsick, and ashamed, knowing that you deserved better than such careless treatment.

He would come back eventually. He would realize you had moved out, that you hadn’t been to the shop in weeks. You knew he would try and win you back. He would plead, saying he left and returned and was ready to stay forever.

In turn, you would tell him that it didn’t matter that he had left and returned. For the second he had crossed city lines and deserted you, you were gone.


End file.
